A bit of this, a bit of that

32 hour working days can knock the stuffing out of you, even if it isn’t immediately apparent. One week I work silly hours, the next week is the annual Easter LAN and I sleep through it. I think I have that all arse about.

In game has been much the same. If you read the WoW in an Hour interview, you already know I like to mix it up. This has never been truer than right now.

I don’t think it’s the pre-expansion malaise, I think is a mix of my love of all aspects of the game and my growing weariness with all aspects of the game.

I love a good instance – but one is enough.

I love a good battleground – but one (win) is enough.

I love a raid – a single weekly raid boss is enough.

I love Wintergrasp – but one is enough.

I love questing – but 5 are enough.

I love Arena – but 10 are enough.

Speaking of Arena

We have managed to get through 2 weeks.

I’d like to say we are getting better... 3 wins (/cough) 1st week, 4 wins the second, but maybe we are getting lucky. Then again, we are starting to understand each other better… well I think they now know I can’t follow instructions… I’m too busy jumping about laying down the fire.

How does a RetPally (or Holy), DiscPriest (or Shadow) and a jumpy Fire Mage (or Fire Mage) beat a Priest/Tree/DK..?

Yeah, I know, just kill them.

We have only done the bare minimum fights each week so far… I assume we should be pumping them right now, do as many as we can, until we get a rating above 400? Then maybe we can settle down. I sort of figure we aren’t losing much if anything for a loss, so now is the time to take the hits.

Old Skool PvP

Battlegrounds have been happening; in fact I have been joining up with my mate’s guildies for a few romps. Without my friends around, battlegrounds go either way… 10% win or 90% loss. Although SotA has been going better later – quick easy instructions & often people listen!

I grabbed some of the guys in between BGs one night to come down to Gurubashi with me. I have been hunting for the Arena Grand Master achievement – just for fun you understand.

Sometimes there is no one there, I’d open the chest, /sigh, and port out.

Often there would be the level 80 Druid that wouldn’t even get a heal off before being reduced to a pile of ashes.

One time there was a level 19 Tauren that begged and pleaded to get the trinket. As I am not a heartless Gnome, I indicated they could take it unopposed. The next time I came it was the level 19 Tauren + 3 stealthed mates all making /chicken emotes at me… Sometimes I wonder why I am so nice.

The 3rd last time I went, the Arena was full… 1/2 of them being my mates. I just thought that since everyone else was bringing support, I’d bring bigger support. It paid off, I got my trinket, opened a portal and we all ported out…Just as a straggling mate arrived and was then subsequently corpse camped.It took me a little while to get back there… But I wasn’t going to leave a supportive mate hanging out to dry.

The 2nd last time I went I was faced with a Lock and a Shaman. To be honest neither are my favorite opponents and the Lock’s title should have warned me to leave straight away. This Lock wasn’t just insane, but was THE INSANE! Fortunately for me they weren’t friends, so they were helping me kill each of them.At one point I thought I was about to become shadow roasted Gnome… but I finally saw a spell effect that I doubted worked… Molten Shield’s spell reflect… Right back at you Lock!

The last time I went, the place was empty, until I started opening the chest. Then in rode a shaman that tore several new expletive-deleted-holes in me.I had given up when I got a whisper from this toon saying.

You can come and grab the trinket. I’ve already got it. I was just passing by and dropped in for some fun

While I admit I would have liked to have finished the quest line with a win, I think this result gave me the greatest hope. There are people out there playing for the joy of PvP that don’t spit and T-bag, that are generous souls.

In other news I respec’d.

TB tells us anything less than Arcane is inferior and the players should be shot on sight.

Christian tells us that Frostfire Bolt is at the least in need of some love, but otherwise is dead.

Prelimar ponders the possibilities of Fire/Fire dual spec.

Krizzlybear shows all comers that he may be doing 5% less than Arcane, but more often than not that is more than 6-20 other DPS.

I’ve been dual Fire/Fire for a long time. I dabbled in Arcane/Fire for about 3 weeks 12 months ago. When I woke from my coma I respec’d Fire/Fire.

So now I have respec’d and I am:

FIRE!/FIRE!

Umm yeah, well what do you expect?

Think I am going to change my header to say I through balls of frost… reroll Troll?

Who you kidding?

I’m sure there is a name for the build… It’s probably just “Fire”, but after playing with FrostFire for a while, I feel it needs an adjective… so I am calling it TrueFire.

The major differences I have noticed (apart from a reasonable increase in raid damage) are the frost effects and the damage… kinda makes sense doesn’t it?

FFB: 2-3 kill on a slowly moving target.. once in a while it would get to me before the kill shot.

Fireball: 1-2 kill on a fast moving target… usually gets to me and bonks me on the head before the kill shot.

But it feels good to be TrueFire again.

Nooblegarden Chocolates are an unfair advantage in the Arena!

Nerf Nooblegarden Chocolates!

I really couldn’t be stuffed last year, I hung around long enough to get the Polymorph: Rabbit spell (which I have never used mind you), then got the hell away from the basket wielding bunny-ear adorned nutbags.

This year I just had to compete it… I don’t understand why, it’s just a compulsion.

So I was going great guns, down to the last achievement.. chocoholic, when I made an error of judgement.

I went to the Arena!

Yes, I know some of you think that is enough of an error in itself… so what are you doing to do about it… fight me?

When you enter the Arena, all conjured items in your possession go… it’s to remove any unfair advantage. You get reagent free buffing and conjuring time during the preparation stage, so it isn’t a big problem…

Unless you are carrying 86 Nooblegarden chocolates.

Then it’s a problem…

Then I cry…

I raised a ticket, kind of excited that I had identified a bug. Blizzard was too busy to return my “call”. In fact it took them 2.5 days before I got the response, and what a response it was. I got my eggs and a long message of thanks. The bug was known, but they appreciated my efforts.

I appreciated their efforts and a short time… well, actually it took an annoyingly long time, later…

I could tell you the eggs come from chickens...

So if you like a little Arena on the side, or like a little chocolate on the side.. put it in your stomach or the bank before you enter the Arena!

Loremaster

Depending on where you start, it can be a long, long journey… all for some silly title.

I got stuck in Outland, Blades Edge, Ogri’lla to be specific.

I have never done any of those dailies… hardly quested in Blades edge at all… but do you know what I did do… I skipped the “introduction” quests.

The…

Go visit Fred in Blades Edge, he’s got some tasks for you

quests… the ones you ignore because they are out of your way and irrelevant, because you can go straight to Fred and get the follow-up quest anyway.

So I found myself 3 quests short… 2 if I could get to honored, 1 if I could take down the big guys at the stupid simon says light game, 0 if I could take down the dragon.

I decided to start with the Dragon… if I completed that quest, then I would be honored and there would only be one quest required.

I needed to farm 35 shards first… painful, more painful than gathering eggs. Once done I went straight to the dragon. group quest.. yeah right… all the elite group quests had fallen beneath my savage flames.

It took me a few weeks to convince my mates that they really should help their FireMage mate against a Fire Immune mob… but finally…

70 shards later…

83 Icecrown quests left until… the end.

Mushroom of the Frozen Food Department

I pretty much gave up regular raiding about 9-10 months ago. My merry band of mates decided to pursue our individual in-game interests or leave the game entirely. So I went from 7/10 of a raid group to 1/10 of a raid group overnight.

I had two outstanding tasks on my Champignon of the Frozen Wastes Achievement… can you guess which two?

Oculus

Eye of Eternity

The two most hated instances/raids in the game. It would appear that people would rather uninstall WoW than face these two encounters.

When the new LFD/LFR instance came into effect, I would just leave EoE as one of my selected raids… I hoped that one day, someone, somewhere would decide it was worth the trouble.

I was wrong.

Squidly got Oculus as a random Instance early on and thankfully the tank didn’t bail… so I got that.

Gnomeaggedon finally got it and the group stayed. In part because TreeHuggerDave (Or Mr. Tree.. or WhereTheBloodyHellAreYou!) was the heals and he didn’t bail.

Last week Malygos was the weekly raid quest.

Hooray!

After a round of BG’s my PvPing mates asked if I wanted to join them for Maly10.

HELL YEAH!

“Can you bring Squidly”

“Mmmmm… yeah… of course I can”

/em Gnomeaggedon goes and quietly weeps in the corner.

It wasn’t a one shot, but I accounted for myself reasonably well. I sort of knew the strat because I have been preparing for this moment for 12 months.

What I couldn’t understand was the hatred for the raid. Yes, Yes, I know everyone had 2+x the gear score… Yes, yes, I know that the dragons now scale with our gear.

Whatever the case… why the hate?

It’s EASY!

It’s so much easier than Oculus in fact (the main problem with Oculus for me is not controlling the drakes, it’s finding the party when I launch into the sky 2 seconds after everyone else)

Gnomeaggedon was hunting replacement eggs on Sunday when he got a whisper…

[Malygos Must Die!]?

Please don’t make me cry with joy…

Yes, yes, YES!

No great surprise, we wiped.. actually we wiped twice.

I could be wrong, but maybe it had something to do with the two non-spark-deathgripping-sub-900-DPS-DeathKnights.

Maybe… I mean their role was clear… DeathGrip the Sparks to a place advantageous for DPS, and, well, DPS (I don’t think they were asked to heal… they definitely weren’t asked to tank).

Anyway, Malygos goes down… I’m top DPS (It’s not that hard to press the dragon’s two buttons, nah?) and I am now also a Mushroom of the Frozen Food Department.

Yeah, so not much happening…

What you read this far?

Maybe you skipped forward to this spot?

Whatever, thanks for reading this 2nd last line…

Gnomer and Out!

PS: If you got all the way here… well, it was heavy reading… go read this instead, it will bring a smile to your face and a rhyme to your tongue! OH SNAP, Ixo’s got rhymes! Posted by Ixobelle

PPS: Check out the video of his little fella… that is what parenting is all about…

You know… I think I have been hitting my progression bosses and wiping for 12 months… the thing is that they aren’t progression bosses by everyone elses standards, they are just hurdles on the way to Arthas…

Me, spread over so many aspects… finishing pre-Ulduar stuff is like kneecapping Arthas.

as a bit of an update, i actually *have* set up a second spec of “all in” fire (no points anywhere else) just as something fun to try. it’s… interesting. having almost literally every talent in the fire tree is fun, but one thing that keeps me using my beloved FFB spec is that it takes FOR. EVER. to cast a fireball.

but i’m still testing it out. it does feel good to be all fire, but i miss the slowing of frost tree abilities, though. making anything take a little longer to get to me is always a good thing.